Open to anyone in the Spirit Wilds house or who might visit.

[dustonmyfeet]

It was mid-morning, and Toph hadn't come out of her room. Mid-morning, verging towards noon, and there hadn't even been a sound.

Toph wasn't always an early riser, admittedly. She tended to go with the flow of whatever she felt like on that particular day, sometimes up with the sun to keep her own rigorous training schedule (or to bend Zuko's mask before he headed anywhere), sometimes sleeping in and emerging later with her hair like an overgrown bush, ready to scarf down breakfast.

But today . . . silence.

She was still.

Comments

[raavashing]

Wan remained where he was, frowning and unsure if he should push things. But he needed someone to talk to, someone who already knew about his past as a non-bender.

He took a deep breath and put his hand against the door, calling out, "Can I please come in? Even if you're not there, I could use a good wall to talk to for a bit and your room is one of the only ones that has most of the walls still intact."

[dustonmyfeet]

Zuko's visit had softened her up a little bit. Shutting out the world until further notice still sounded like a really good idea at the moment, but that was hard when the world kept knocking.

Also hard when the knocker had that undertone in its voice. It was the undertone that made her yield, though changing her mind was like rocks grinding together -- just as hard, and just and unwilling.

". . . Fine."

[raavashing]

He quietly opened the door, slipped inside, and shut it firmly behind him. He took another deep breath before moving to sit down on the floor next to her bed and curl up on himself. His knees tucked into his chest and his arms around his knees.

"Are you okay?" he asked quietly. He wanted to talk about his problems, but she was obviously upset about something herself. "I mean, is the wall that is here in Toph's place okay?"

[dustonmyfeet]

Her full attention had been on hearing him -- listening to the door, the shift of fabric, the movement . . . doing her best to tell herself this was still manageable; she'd always relied on her hearing to some extent, and it wasn't like she'd lost that too. This was manageable. She could make this work.

The question from him startled her. Maybe she was used to the others starting in on their problems; maybe she was used to them for the most part skirting around when she was upset, giving her the space she'd always demanded. But she hadn't been expecting him to ask, and she hadn't been prepared for when he did. She was quiet for a long time, groping for words that normally came easily -- normally as fast as she could sling rocks.

"Can't bend." At last she managed only those two words, quiet and stiff, braced against his reaction -- though what exactly she expected, she didn't know. A hand lifted, palm rubbing against one eye as she made the connection for him.

". . . Can't see."

[raavashing]

Oh.

Oh.

Wan lifted his head to look at her and his knees fell to either side so he was sitting up in a more comfortable lotus position. Something that came easily to him.

"I can't bend, either," he admitted in return. "But I can help you see if you'd like me to. Until you learn where things are around the house, at least. It probably won't take you long to memorize where the furniture is, if you haven't already done that."

[dustonmyfeet]

A nod -- a very small one. Short. Tight. She could hold onto this. Maintain control. A slight shiver spread through her frame. She tightened against it. Held it back.

What he was offering would help, and that he offered it on her level, without pity, went a long way toward acquiescence. She could accept that, and it didn't tangle into the very complex web of her pride. ". . . Thanks."

Pushing back towards his statement: "You can't bend too?"

[raavashing]

He didn't respond to the thanks. He could tell it was hard for her. He'd known some blind beggars before and away from the act they put on to get enough pity for people to throw them scraps, they had been very proud of how well they knew the streets they walked. Of how much they could do for themselves. They knew exactly what they needed help with and how much of that help was too much. For someone who was used to 'seeing', Toph would not yet know what her limits were. But that didn't mean she wouldn't learn them fast enough.

"No," Wan answered her question instead, sighing a little. "A spirit entered me last night and it's energies got tangled up with mine. Scrambled me up a bit and it took me a while to find Raava again. It happened when the rest of the spirit barrier fell. I could feel it coming down, all the spirits breaking away from it... but I was in bed already and I didn't realize a spirit was coming near me until it was already there. Or it's light was. It was so bright... And with how Raava had overwhelmed them before, I didn't think it's coming would be as bad as it was. One of them probably got into you through that light, too."

[dustonmyfeet]

That got her attention.

"A spirit?" In spite of hanging out with an Avatar, Toph didn't deal much in spirits. They were Aang's realm . . . and frankly, in their own time, the human beings caused enough trouble. Enough to barely even have time for spirits. ". . . That's what caused this? Like the ones roaming around the barrier and messing people up?"

[raavashing]

"Yeah. They're all from the barrier, so it would be some of the same ones," he answered slowly. "But they're all gone now. They weren't strong spirits. It was just being gathered together in the numbers they were that gave them strength..."

Wan trailed off as he leaned his head back and looked up at the ceiling, studying the way the cracks formed a maze that got more and more complex the closer they got to where a few roots had pushed their way through.

"It's so strange. To feel the power inside me and not be able to touch it. When I didn't have the power of the elements, before the Lion Turtles gave them to me, I couldn't feel any of the energy inside me. But now... this is hard."

[dustonmyfeet]

"Yeah . . ."

Normally Toph might have been a little more profound, but there were no good words to touch something that echoed too deeply in herself.

"Can't you . . . talk to them or something? You and Korra and Aang and whoever? Make them un-scramble us?"

[raavashing]

He shook his head out of habit, "Not when the spirits that did this to us seem to be gone. They disappeared, expended themselves when they released that light, as far as I can tell. Which... isn't much, I admit."

Another sigh before he put his head in his hands, "I can't even talk to Raava. I can feel her there, but with our energies all jumbled, I can't even ask her if she has an idea how to fix this."